1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to surgical stapling apparatus including surgical buttresses which can be releasably attached to the surgical stapling apparatus, and in particular, surgical buttresses folded and contoured so as to remain securely attached.
2. Background of Related Art
Surgical stapling apparatus are employed by surgeons to sequentially or simultaneously apply one or more rows of fasteners, e.g., staples or two-part fasteners, to body tissue for the purpose of joining segments of body tissue together. Such apparatus generally include a pair of jaws or finger-like structures between which the body tissue to be joined is placed. When the stapling apparatus is actuated, or “fired”, longitudinally moving firing bars contact staple drive members in one of the jaws. The staple drive members push the surgical staples through the body tissue and into an anvil in the opposite jaw which forms the staples. If tissue is to be removed or separated, a knife blade can be provided in the jaws of the apparatus to cut the tissue between the lines of staples.
It is known to rely on a knife blade for cutting off some portion of the surgical buttress to affect release. A secondary material or mounting structure may be employed in addition to the surgical buttress (e.g., sutures) to provide attachment of the surgical buttress to the surgical stapling apparatus. Typically, firing forces are increased with each material that must be transected by the knife blade in order to release the surgical buttress.
It would be desirable to provide a surgical buttress that may be releasably secured to a surgical stapling apparatus without the need for a secondary material or mounting structure, and without the need for a knife blade to cut the secondary material or mounting structure to release the surgical buttress from the surgical stapling apparatus, thereby resulting in the use of fewer materials and lower firing forces. It would also be desirable to provide a surgical buttress having greater structural integrity and rigidity without adversely effecting a firing sequence of the surgical stapling apparatus.